fall 2004 vol. 10 no. 2                                                                                                                  Return to Contents
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2004 Annual Meeting
Legal Assistants Division

Patti Giuliano and Linda Studer, CLA
Co-Chairs of the 2004 LAD Annual Meeting San Antonio

By all accounts the 2004 State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting held in June in San Antonio was a great success. Thanks to a devoted group of volunteers and very generous vendors the event went off without a hitch.

Our Thursday evening social started the festivities on the right foot. We braved the torrential rainfall and settled in for a drink and some great appetizers at Steers & Beers. Our social vendors provided us with a glimpse into the services they provide, and also donated a number of door prizes. In fact, it was said that there were as many door prizes as there were attendees! Many thanks to Lisa Santos, Gale Gattis, Katie Isenberg, Barbie Celaya and Kristy Ritchie for setting up this great event, and thanks to Charlene Carroll and Karen Jouett for soliciting all the door prizes.

On Friday we had a full day of quality CLE put together by Karen Briere and her committee. Attorney ileta Sumner gave a presentation on the legal ramifications of family violence, Bill Lester talked about recent developments in tax law, Dennis Cox made a presentation on handwriting analysis, and Michael Hernandez discussed the Texas Public Information Act. Thanks to Elizabeth Rappold, Delia Narvaiz and Kristy Ritchie for all their hard work on this committee.

Our Annual Meeting luncheon was one of the highlights of the event. We were treated to a presentation by The Honorable Lora Livingston who provided us with some updates on the paralegal vs. legal assistant issue, and then gave an excellent presentation on the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

Also at our luncheon, Gary McNeil, the Executive Director of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, presented awards to those individuals who have achieved TBLS certification, marking the 10th anniversary of the TBLS program for legal assistants. In addition, Lisa Ivey, LAD member from Houston, was presented with the 2004 Exceptional Pro Bono Service Award for volunteer legal service to her community. Congratulations Lisa and thank you for being such an inspirational role model.                                                                                 Past Presidents (from left) Melissa Sherman, CLA, Michele                                                                                                          Border, CLA, Debra Crosby, Javan Johnson, CLA,S
                                                                                                 and Rhonda Brashears, CLA

The Annual Meeting is an important time for the LAD Board of Directors as this is the time when the outgoing Board is recognized for a job well done, and the new Board is sworn in to duty. We owe outgoing President Melissa Sherman of Fort Worth a debt of gratitude for her service to the organization and we look forward to another great year with Kim Cantu of Dallas at the helm.
We have so many people to thank for their help in putting this event together. First and foremost, we want to thank our committee. Jill Mundy, Gale Gattis, Karen Jouett and Heidi Tarrillion did a fabulous job publicizing our events and putting together what I heard deemed “the best booth” in the Exhibit Hall! As mentioned above, Karen Briere, Delia Narvaiz, Elizabeth Rappold and Kristy Ritchie did an exceptional job putting together the CLE. Lisa Santos, Barbie Celaya, Katie Isenberg and Kristy Ritchie put together a very fun and relaxing social event, and Charlene Carroll and Karen Jouett worked tirelessly in getting sponsorships and door prizes — what a team!

We would certainly be remiss if we didn’t mention Norma Hackler, Ellen Lockwood and Shawna Dixon of the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting Department, as they were instrumental in providing information and guidance in the planning process. Thanks to each of you.

Last and certainly not least we were indeed fortunate to have a number of extremely generous sponsors. They included:

Platinum Sponsors
CaseFile Express, Inc.
Cox & Smith Incorporated
Hollerbach & Associates, Inc.
IKON Office Solutions, Inc.
Iron Mountain Records Management
National Depo
Photography by Carmen
Prescott Legal Search
Priority Information Services
Prove-Up Legal Services, Inc.
Scarab Digital Imaging
Thomson-West

Gold Sponsors
Adamo & Associates
CaseSoft
Elizondo Flower Shop                                                                     Outgoing President Melissa Sherman turns the gavel
Esquire Deposition Services                                                            over to Incoming President Kim Cantu.
Federal Court Reporters                           
Flower Mart Wholesale Florists
Justice Reporting & Video
Mystic Angel Creations
Rydman Record Retrieval
Team Litigation Company
Vox Record Retrieval Services

Silver Sponsors
American Payroll Association
Blumberg Excelsior, Inc.
Capitol Services, Inc.
ePortalHost.com
Kyle Kline
National Association of Legal Assistants
Paralegals Plus, Inc.
Providus Group
University of Texas at San Antonio

Law Firm Sponsors
Ball & Weed, P.C.
Cox & Smith Incorporated
Jenkens & Gilchrist, P.C.
McReynolds & Tye, P.C.

We were so very grateful to have the support of each of the sponsors! When you are in need of outside services, we hope that you will look to this list of our sponsoring vendors and let them be your first choice.

While we are thankful that the event is over we also admit that we were given an opportunity to grow professionally in this leadership capacity. We hope that everyone who attended enjoyed themselves and learned something in the process. See you all next year in Dallas!

Annual Meeting Chairs Patti Giuliano and Linda Studer.

Texas Paralegal Journal © Copyright 2004 by the Legal Assistants Division, State Bar of Texas.

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